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All night, Marc recalled with a grin, customers were ordering cans of Mass Riot IPA, the flagship beer of Prison City Brewing. 

When the Schulzes opened Prison City 10 years ago this week as a brewpub on State Street downtown, they saw making their own beer as just a way to stand out from other restaurants in Auburn.

Today, that beer is available in stores like Wegmans throughout the Northeast after years of attracting lines outside the brewpub. And despite an industry decline since COVID-19 that has seen close each year and those lines become a thing of the past, Prison City is still growing. That modest brewpub is now one of the most successful breweries in central New York. 

"We are a bit of a unicorn," Marc told мÓƶà¶à¿ª½±¼Ç¼. "To have survived 2020 and continue to grow our business four years later is pretty remarkable. We're very lucky."

But Prison City, whose growth has been driven by a 20-barrel production facility on North Street that opened in 2020, wasn't the only brewery to begin in Cayuga County 10 years ago. Earlier that year saw the opening of Shep's Brewing in Auburn and Lunkenheimer Craft Brewing Co. in Weedsport, the first brewery to open and the first to be licensed in the county since Prohibition, respectively. 

The local beer scene has continued to surge with the opening of Aurora Brewing Co. in Ledyard in 2015, Summerhill Brewing in Summerhill in 2016, Next Chapter Brewpub in Auburn in 2018 and Owasco Lake Brewing in Moravia in 2021. That's among the breweries per capita of any county in New York state, and rivals Cayuga's number of wineries — and all of them are still making beer.

Some of those breweries have grown over the years as well. Lunkenheimer switched to a bigger space and opened a second one on Sodus Bay while distributing its beer throughout central New York. Aurora, meanwhile, has extensively renovated its local space, opened a new one in the Rochester area and, just this week, a third in Syracuse. It distributes throughout the state and beyond.

Then there are the awards the county's breweries have won. Prison City has World Beer Cup and Great American Beer Festival medals to its name, along with the No. 1 finish in a national blind tasting that made Mass Riot a hot commodity. The Auburn brewery and Lunkenheimer have also cleaned up at the New York State Craft Beer Competition, where Aurora and Shep's have won medals of their own.

But Cayuga County's breweries aren't resting on their trophy cases and happy customers. As the industry continues to struggle, they're trying to serve more of what people want — beer and otherwise.

'A hell of a weekend' in store for Prison City's 10th anniversary

Prison City will celebrate its 10th anniversary this weekend with three days of special beer releases and other events.

Thursday will see the can release of Flocking Outside, a double IPA collaboration with beloved Vermont brewery Lawson's Finest Liquids. Friday will be the customary bottle release of bourbon barrel-aged Wham Whams, the brewery's Governor's Cup-winning imperial stout with coconut, with more special versions on draft. And Saturday will be the return of early Prison City sours like Run Like an Apricot for the first time in years, on tap and in bottles. There will also be live music by Chris Eves at 7 p.m. Thursday, and Grateful Dead cover band the Proud Walkers will reunite at 9 p.m. Saturday. 

"It should be a hell of a weekend to celebrate what we've done, with a nod to the past and looking toward the future," Marc said. 

While sours and Wham Whams will take center stage at Prison City this weekend, Mass Riot has been the beer driving the brewery's unlikely growth, Marc said. The IPA has mostly been doing that in central New York as well. It's popular in states like Massachusetts — whose breweries inspired its hazy, tropical style — but almost ubiquitous in bars and restaurants in Auburn and beyond. 

The Schulzes moved to Auburn in 2001 from Lake Placid, where they opened a third Prison City taproom this spring. To see the city adopt them back has been "extremely humbling," Marc said.

"When you look around and see your beer on tap everywhere ... I don't think it's that people necessarily are like, 'I gotta have Mass Riot,'" he said. "I think they say, 'Oh, that's our beer.'"

The IPA isn't showing any signs of slowing down, Marc said, with sales up 78% this year over last even as enthusiasm for the hoppy style begins to slump in step with the industry. The beer's success has also opened the door to distribution at more grocery stores, bars and restaurants. But as they look to continue growing through Mass Riot, the Schulzes are keeping an eye on emerging trends that could help, or hurt, their business — renewed interest in lagers, trivia and other experience nights, legalized cannabis, and deals becoming more of a deciding factor in where people buy drinks.

Marc, a veteran of the beer industry for about 30 years, said it's never been more interesting than it is now. This weekend, he and Dawn look forward to celebrating Prison City's part in it. 

"We wouldn't be anywhere without our community and loyal customers," she said. "We're so very grateful people have come along this ride with us and are now craft beer fans maybe because of it."

'Having great beer doesn't matter as much as it used to'

If Prison City began as a restaurant using beer to distinguish its food, Lunkenheimer Craft Brewing finds itself doing the reverse.

"We run a restaurant now," co-owner Derric Slocum told мÓƶà¶à¿ª½±¼Ç¼.

The Weedsport brewery, which focuses on traditional and particularly German styles, has made wood-fired pizza and other food just as big a part of its business model over the last five years. 

Slocum believes the shift was inevitable, but accelerated by the impact COVID-19 has had on the beer industry. People today more commonly drink at home, at lesser cost and in more calorie-conscious ways, leading seltzers and mixed drinks to grab significant market share from beer. As a result, not only have breweries closed but bars tend not to stay open as late as they did before the pandemic.

"Bars don't exist like they used to," Slocum said. "Since COVID, if people can't find a place to sit down then they leave."

His wife and co-owner, Kristen Slocum, added, "When we were in our mid-20s and 30s we would look forward to Fridays, go out and meet friends. Now you don't really see that as much."

Lunkenheimer continues to produce, distribute and win awards for lighter beers like its flagship Kölsch, which also comes in blood orange and other flavors. That's what the Slocums' 5-barrel system is best at, and they're not looking to change. Instead, they're focused on what foods to add to their restaurant, such as beef on weck on Wednesdays and Belgian waffles for Sunday brunch.

"That's what we've done to survive," Kristen said. "We are a small business, and the most important thing is staying relevant."

Wood-fired pizza has been featured prominently at Aurora and Next Chapter as well. The next Cayuga County brewery to expand its kitchen will be Shep's, whose owner, Garrett Shepherd, has been pursuing several opportunities to grow his downtown Auburn business in recent years. He has begun selling his own seltzers, for instance, though he told мÓƶà¶à¿ª½±¼Ç¼ his beers outsell them five to one.

"We do our best to have something for everyone to enjoy," he said.

Saturday karaoke has brought new customers to Shep's on a weekly basis, Shepherd said, and later into the night. While he continues to produce new beers for lovers of ones like There Is No Spoon IPA and his award-winning Flashpoint Scotch ale, he's also brewing ideas for more events — and anything else that can help him recapture the business that made 2019 his best year of the last decade.

"Having great beer doesn't matter as much as it used to. Now people can find it really anywhere," he said. "It comes down to diversifying and figuring out another draw for people to want to come in."